Emily stepped in at just the right moment, adding, “The punishment really isn’t anything embarrassing. After all, it’s just a board game. It’s meant for friends to have fun together, so Leon, you don’t need to worry too much.”
Though her words sounded comforting, Leon could tell Emily was secretly enjoying the thought of watching him suffer and was coaxing him into accepting the punishment.
“Exactly, it’s fine,” Haley chimed in.
“Leon, I believe you’re a man of your word. Draw the card,” Abigail said with a mischievous smile as she pulled Leon’s hand toward the punishment card on the table.
Sophia didn’t speak, but her wide eyes were full of anticipation, making it clear she had no intention of letting him off the hook.
“Sigh… since you’re all ganging up on me, I guess I have no choice.”
Leon let out a long sigh. Seeing the expressions of the four women, he finally gave in. The atmosphere was already charged; he didn’t want to ruin the mood. Still, he made a mental note to get back at the main culprits—Haley and Abigail—next time by rallying others against them.
For now, though, he would lead by example, making sure there would be no excuse for Abigail or Haley to weasel out of punishments in the future.
He casually slid out the card that was under his palm without even looking at it. Flipping it over, he revealed its contents.
There were no words on the card—just a finely illustrated character portrait. The figure had outstretched arms, wore a luxurious gown, and stood on a stage with a microphone in front. Everything about the image screamed the character’s identity.
“Singer!”
The other girls all recognized it instantly and announced the role together.
“Looks like your punishment is to sing,” Emily said with a smile.
“What a shame. I was hoping for a clown or a gladiator,” Haley said, looking genuinely disappointed.
“A magician wouldn’t be bad either,” Abigail countered.
“I like pirates better,” Sophia added her opinion.
They were naming the playable roles in the board game. Each had its own unique skill. Earlier in the game, Leon had drawn the Tax Collector card, whose skill was to levy taxes based on the other players’ fixed assets, multiplying the number by twenty. Unfortunately, he never got the chance to use that overpowered skill before the game ended.
“Wait, isn’t this a punishment card? Why is it using a role card’s character?” Leon complained.
“Because it’s part of the game’s charm,” Haley explained. “Punishments are a form of role-play too. The Singer sings, the Clown has to entertain the crowd, and the Gladiator has to do fifty sit-ups. You should be happy you didn’t get one of those.”
“The Magician’s punishment is to perform a magic trick. Can you do that?” Abigail teased.
“The Pirate’s the easiest. All they have to do is dance the Duck Dance,” Sophia said casually, completely ignoring how socially mortifying that was.
“Fine, Singer it is. But I have one condition—when I sing, I need accompaniment. Without it, I don’t perform.” Leon was actually thinking the Gladiator’s punishment didn’t sound so bad now.
Too bad he drew the Singer. He wasn’t against the idea, but he wasn’t going to let these girls have their fun without making them work for it.
“I can accompany you. What song do you want to sing?” Abigail volunteered. “I brought my flute.”
“Have you heard of ‘Rice Field Breeze’?” Leon asked.
“Nope. What’s that?” Abigail looked confused.
She glanced at the others and saw they were just as clueless.
Like you’d ever have heard it, Leon thought to himself before saying, “That’s the song I want to sing, but it’s hard without accompaniment.”
“You’re not just making that up as an excuse, are you? Pretending you’ve got some mystery song so you can get out of it?” Haley narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
“Absolutely not. I’m famous for being honest. Tell you what—if you want to hear it, get me a guitar and I’ll perform. Deal?” Leon immediately gave her a task.
“Fine. Wait here.” Haley got up at once.
She changed her shoes at the door, grabbed an umbrella, and went out.
“Oh right, Sam’s in a band, and he has a guitar. Haley must be going to borrow it from him,” Abigail said as she realized where Haley was headed.
Leon wasn’t surprised—he had already guessed Haley would do that when he asked for a guitar. This was his way of making her run an errand, a light-hearted payback for ambushing him, the board game newbie. If he really wanted to dodge the punishment, he would’ve asked for a two-stringed erhu instead. Good luck finding one of those here.
Before long, Haley came back with a guitar case slung over her shoulder, her dress and shoulders speckled with raindrops. She set the case in front of Leon and threatened, “Here’s your guitar. If you were just messing with me, I’ll make you regret it.”
Leon ignored her threat, opening the case and pulling out an old but well-kept guitar. He plucked a few strings and began tuning it.
As an easy-to-learn but highly effective “girl-magnet” instrument, Leon was no stranger to the guitar. Back in college, he had dated a music major and practiced for quite some time. Although it had been years since he last touched one, his fingers quickly rediscovered the long-buried muscle memory.
Once he was satisfied with the tuning, he strummed a few chords to check the sound, then said, “I’m going to sing in a language you don’t know, so don’t question the lyrics—just listen.”
He said this because he planned to sing Jay Chou’s “Rice Field Breeze” in its original Chinese. Since Chinese wasn’t a known language in this world, he didn’t want the girls accusing him of making up nonsense.
“Please begin your performance,” the girls replied without hesitation. They didn’t care about the language. They just wanted to hear him sing.
Leon’s confident way of tuning the guitar had already raised their expectations.
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